Cranach blogs about “Life on Mars,” a BBC cop show about a modern cop who was thrown back to 1974 and encounters cultural difficulties while trying to solve crime. G.E. Veith writes, “What I like most about the show is not so much that science fiction overlay but the well-scripted mystery plots, which are stellar examples of the police-procedural mystery genre.”

Bud has a list of peeves with things such as “Novelists who can’t think of something more creative than to have novelists as characters” and “Publishing people who use the word ‘best’ and other silly superlatives to describe things they know are not.”

You know, I think political polling is becoming a pet peeve for me. It’s addictive but pointless. It’s the same as carefully unwrapping a gift so that you can peek at a corner of the box. Can’t wait for Christmas. Can’t focus on making cookies. No, you have to count, shake, and peek at your gifts under the tree. Course, my guy isn’t doing great in the polls right now, so that encourages my irritation, but still the national and state polling for the last several months has gotten oppressive. Please stop.

Speaking of political peeves, I don’t understand what internal party politics has to do with honest voters in various state primaries. How is it just for a party to declare the votes in Michigan worthless? Is the same thing happening in Florida? That’s not right. Those people should be able to vote in their primaries just like the rest of us.

Getting back to literary peeves, I think my only real peeve is hearing that a book deals honestly with hard subjects from the author or marketer and finding that it does not. I don’t guess that’s a big deal though. You see that kind of thing all the time in different ways.

The Anchoress is calling for glasnost in the United States of America, which seems to be a good idea, but I’m a little miffed because her post linked to this little political quiz which marked me as a right-leaning libertarian–not a solid conservative. Hmff! I don’t know about that.

The Wordsmith has new words for the new year, such as adultescent (an adult who acts like a teenager) and commentariat (a group which analyzes or comments on the news).

Opinion Journal: “Barack Obama is black, and it doesn’t matter. The implications could be enormous.” What we saw in Iowa was historic, even though I hope he doesn’t win the general election.

To all you southerners who are sharing this delightful cold snap with us, let me just say, “Welcome to our world!” And let me remind you that Global Warming Is Your Friend. Burn some wood tonight. Take an unnecessary trip in an SUV. Stock up on incandescent light bulbs. If we all work together, we can make this a better—and more temperate—world.

It’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow, though. And above freezing by the weekend.

See, it’s working!



I was going to tell you about my niftiest Christmas present. My brother Baal, from boyhood, has had a remarkable gift for finding good presents for people. I can only attribute this to his actually paying attention to other people’s wants and tastes. This has always made me suspect he was adopted.

This is what he gave me this year. I knew what it was the moment I opened the package, and my heart leaped up, because I’d wanted one of these for some time:

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It’s a Viking padlock, based (according to my internet research) on an archaeological find from Ireland. They came in much more elaborate styles, but this bare-bones model is fairly easy to explain. In the picture above, it’s locked. You can see the key, with its square-holed business end, resting on top of the locking arm.

This is how it looks opened:

As you can see, the lock actually has three parts. The locking pin engages with the end of the locking arm, and the spring holds the pin in place. The key is pushed over the pin (as shown above), and compresses the spring to unlock it and allow the pin to be removed. Simple, and secure enough for general purposes.

It was made by a friend of Baal’s, who blacksmiths as a hobby. I hope to have him make me a new latch for my Viking chest, to go with this lock, if I find I can afford it.

Teachout quotes Ogden Nash on the new year.

Since I’ve written on political topics lately, let me link to this post on Giuliani’s article in City Journal. Harrison Scott Key argues that Giuliani has been the most forward-speaking candidate on the platform, telling us what we will or should do when problems come. “Government should harness the inherent strength of the American people and the private sector,” Giuliani writes, “in order to build a society that may bend-but not break-if catastrophe does strike. The American people are ready, willing, and able to take a more active role in our civil defense.”

I spent today in bed, in a dim room. This would make sense if I’d been celebrating last night, lapping up champagne and jitterbugging past the Magic Hour and on to morning, like a character from Wodehouse. But I did none of those things. I stayed up till midnight, reading a book, and then went to bed. I just don’t feel very well today, and chose to rest up so I’ll be ready to go back to work tomorrow. That’s my life—all the discomfort of a hangover without having any fun.

I’ll make a few bold predictions for 2008:

Liberal political candidates who support gay marriage, abortion on demand, surrender in Iraq, gun confiscation and higher taxes will promise to “bring us all together.”

Liberals will continue to insist that they’ve been muzzled, since “the media are dominated by the conservatives.” When challenged on this contention they will cite the mere existence of Rush Limbaugh.

Hollywood will make more movies attacking America, or Christianity, or both. When asked why, they’ll say that this is what the public wants.

Whatever the weather in 2008 is like, it will be used as evidence of… well, you know.

The rich will get richer. The poor will get a little richer, but not enough to stop them envying the rich.

The Left will continue to insist that Christian fundamentalists are not different in any way from Muslim terrorists.

There will be a new Third Party. If it’s not called “The Conspiracy Theory Party,” it should be.

Fred Thompson has a blog post on Redstate which responds to an article claiming he doesn’t care much about running for president. Thompson writes:

It is clear that there are those in the media who will exact a high price for candor and from those whom they consider to be insufficiently ambitious. But it is with increasing amazement that we see that those who are willing to slant or leave out important parts of a story to make their point.

If a candidate succumbs to this he will be reduced to nothing more than a sound bite machine.

He reproduces a transcript, that I first saw over here, which states his desire to serve as president and his belief that he has the experience to do so. He paints himself as a citizen candidate, not ambitious for political power, but willing to serve the country. This is the man who declined to run for the senate again because he had agreed to the principle of term limits, meaning he would serve only two terms. He says:

I’m saying that I have the background, the capability and concern to do this and do it for the right reasons. I’m not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I’d make a good president.

Nowadays, the process has become much more important than it used to be.

I don’t know that they ever asked George Washington a question like this. I don’t know that they ever asked Dwight D. Eisenhower a question like this. But nowadays, it’s all about fire in the belly.

Also, Thompson answers several questions in this Q&A.